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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 10.11.2011 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Council Absent: Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Pat All Council Present. Berryman, Tommy Gonzalez, Troy Hellmann, Rachael Jonrowe Staff Present: Paul E Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director; A Discussion and possible direction to staff on a proposed land management system -- Elizabeth A. Cook, Community Development Director Berryman absent. With a Powerpoint Presentation, Cook described a possible development land management tracking system for the Council. She said the planning department has been working for some time to get an automated system. She said they are proposing to do a software land tracking system that is similar to Louisiana's South Central planning system. She spoke of the history of this type of system. She said this system will track all planning and permitting applications, it is a digital plan review, it creates permits, tracks all phases of projects, it will generate comments, inspection reports and letters to applicants and it allows for complete internal tracking of reports. She said they hope to go live in the first quarter of 2012. She described the modules and support software of the program including mypermitnow.org, the code enforcement piece, the grant management program and myaddressnow.org. She spoke about the advantages of the system and said it is a flexible customizable system tailored to our business model. She said they will work with us to flow with our processes. She said it is a completely digital plan review process, which reduces bulky plans and the need for storage. She said this will help them work toward a paperless application process. She said this new program will provide fast, efficient field inspections. She said there are phone and email notifications that will go to customer and there is an online application piece as well coming soon. She said the applicants will be able to make an application online without having to come in to the office. She said there is 24/7 customer access to their application statues, there is customized reports at no additional cost, there is ease of use, unlimited support for customers and the City and it will streamline our processes and enhance accountability. She spoke about how Lago Vista and San Marcos are about to go live with their systems. She said the staff went on site visits to look at this program in person. She said they went to South Centra Planning and Development Commission, St. Tammany Parish and the City of Alexandria. She described what they discovered at their site visits. She said one of the things the system does for us is South Central hosts the information, the phone system and the email notifications system, which means the City's resources are not used for this. She said the fee structure is based on the permit volume. She said they are anticipating an City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 3 Pages annual cost for the My Permit piece of the program of $22,000. She said the flat monthly fee includes multi -site real-time backup, automatic phone and email notifications, experienced software developers available to address system software problems, development and release of new features as well as other useful features. She said it stores photos, building/permitting documents, reports and plan review files within the system. She said custom reports are also available by request. She spoke about cost and the pricing for each piece of the system. She said the fees charges are based on project volume. She said there will be fees for additional modules as well. She said their is also a cost for hardware and staff. She said the South Central will come and do on site training if we pay for their expenses. She said there is no up -front costs or set-up fees. She noted savings will be recognized from taking permitting and inspections off of Incode and putting them on this new system. She said there will be software savings. She said they anticipate the cost for all of the components for the tracking system would be about $25,800. She said they have not received a cost estimate for the community service piece yet. She said the code enforcement cost is on a per case basis. She said the hardware component would be about $30,000 and she described what that cost would get for the City. Berryman arrived at the dais. She said they have a plan to recoup the cost for this. She said the City would charge users a technology fee based on application type and complexity. She noted there is an immediate paper savings for the applicants. She said they use fees to pay for software contracts and hardware needed to maximize software's effectiveness and paperless review. She said once fees accumulate, they will become self supporting. She said, based on the 2010-2011 application volume, they estimate to have $29,000 in annual revenue. She said this went to GGAF and received positive feedback. She said there are two companion items on the regular agenda and she described those for the City Council. Mayor asked and Cook said, to the extent we can, staff would like to put older records on the system. She said, however, staff will start by moving forward and then try working back as much as possible. She said the ideal way would be to go back and have the old information, but it is not a requirement. Mayor asked and Cook said it is not a requirement to purchase large scanners to do this. She noted the City would no longer keep some of the paper copies if the information is available on the digital system. Gonzalez said and Cook said the outlay to start the program is for the hardware. She said the City does not have to pay for the tracking system up front. She clarified the costs and when they will be incurred. Jonrowe said she ran this by her husband and said he is very excited. She said he also said being able to get notification by phone will be very beneficial. She asked about the My Code Enforcement portion and how it changes from what we do now. Jonrowe asked and Baird spoke about how the current code enforcement process works. Baird said the existing software we have does not allow for the ease of use that the new system would provide. She said this would make the process automatic because the existing software requires the users to manually input the next step in the process. She said this new software would guide the users through all of the necessary steps of code enforcement. She said the user will be able to look at code enforcement issues by type, location and district, among other things. Jonrowe asked and Baird confirmed they anticipate this will make the process much more efficient. Baird said this will store photos with each individual address within the system. She said staffanticipates that all of the Council members could have access to that as well. Jonrowe noted this is great and said one of the most common issues she hears is code enforcement issues. Berryman asked if there is a cost to CAPCOG to manage this. Cook said she is not sure and added they do not know of the financial relationship between CAPCOG and South Central. Baird said there is not any financial gain for CAPCOG. She said this just makes it easier to their members. Berryman said logic tells her it is strange that we spend money for the hardware but no one pays the company for the service. Cook clarified and said the City will be paying the company for the use of their system through CAPCOG. She said the City is paying them but we are paying them through CAPCOG because the company is in a different state. Berryman asked and Cook said the hardware will not allow the City to have its own system. Sattler asked and Cook said she does not anticipate that there will be fewer employees with the addition of this system. Cook said the employees will just work differently and will be more effective and efficient. Cook said the city also have several frozen positions in planning and permitting departments. Meigs said this is a great idea and a good example of how technology can save us money and increase our efficiency. Hellmann said he hopes this is something that will allow the City to do more development and process more applications and permits and make better use of our time. He said he is very happy about the cost savings this will bring to the developer. He said he thinks this is indicative of the initiatives we are trying to do. He said this is a step in the right direction and he likes the way the city is going. Eason said she thinks this is a win win situation. She noted it is a fantastic process and added it will allow the City to be more effective in following up with the City Codes. Gonzalez spoke about cost and said the first year would be $55,000 with half of that being recovered. He said, as we consider this option, we have to remember it will take us two years to break even on the deal. He said the money has to come from somewhere to pay the difference. Rundell said Cook is requesting a separate special revenue fund, which will include all of the revenues coming from this system. She said the fund will be overdrawn at the end of the first year and recovered through the next year. Brandenburg spoke about the program and how this would make the City more customer friendly. City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 3 Pages Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Section 551.071-- 5:34 PM Meeting returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:09 PM The meeting was adjourned at 06:09 PM. WE Mayor Gecpfge Garver gitJ Secretary Jessica Brettle City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 3 Pages